As I entered my dorm building, I was happy to find it empty. My emotions were a bit frayed and I didn’t want to have to deal with anyone. Amy had brought back a lot of memories that I had pushed down. I had thrown away all my girls things. Clothes, make-up and shoes just before leaving for college. It was time to be a man.

As I got off the elevator on my floor, I saw some guy I’ve never seen before knocking on my neighbor’s door. There’s a cluster of dorm rooms surrounding a common area and a kitchen. My room was on the opposite side of the hall from where the guy was knocking. I had my keys in my hand as I stepped behind him to unlock my door.

He smiled at me and said, “I like your hair.” That struck me as a very odd thing for a guy to say to another guy.

I mumbled, “Thanks,” as I opened my door just when my neighbor opened his door.

The guy entered the room and as the door was closing, I heard him say, “You never told me you had a chick living next door.” I didn’t hear anything else after the door closed. While this is a co-ed dorm and the college mixes males and females together, as far as I know, there are no females living in my section. So he must mean me. Terrific. I told Amy going to a salon was a bad idea.

I dumped my new clothes and make-up on my bed and scowled at it. The clothes can go in my closet and drawers, but where am I going to keep all my make-up? I’m going to need a bag to keep it in and carry it up to the restaurant. Another thing to buy I guess. That’s going to be a pain, applying my make-up in that small, grimy restroom. I need to come up with a better plan. At least there was some room to change into my uniform in Joanie’s office.

As I put my bottles of nail polish on my desk, another thought hit me. Well shit. I’m going to have to apply this polish before I leave for work or it won’t be dry in time. That means walking through the dorms with my nails polished. That’s when I noticed I didn’t get any nail polish remover. Crap, crap, crap.

I frowned at my new clothes. Joanie had given me two dresses so I don’t have to wear the same one all week. And then the two skirts I bought. I sighed. I should probably wash these things before I wear them. The laundry room is in the building’s basement. The dresses and skirts can look like lumps of cloth, but there’s no hiding what the bras and panties are. This just isn’t going to work. My laundry bag is going to be stuffed.

I looked out my window at the growing darkness. I should go grab something to eat, do some study for two hours and then hit my new laundry. This is already becoming a burden. Tomorrow I have two classes in the morning, two after lunch then go to work at five until ten thirty. I should have applied at that on campus job in the library.

With a little trepidation, I cracked open the door to my room and peeked out. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the hallway was empty. I just need to walk quickly to the elevators. When the elevator doors opened on the first floor, there were three girls waiting to get on. None of them said anything to me. They just smiled and got on the elevator. Maybe I’m just worrying for nothing.

Good thing the walk across campus to the main street where a Mickey D’s was located was short. It was starting to get a bit chilly. Not uncomfortable, but a sweater would have been nice.

When I opened the door to Mickey D’s, I was blasted by the sounds of dozens of voices. It was packed with other students who, like me, were tired of eating ramen. Despite being busy, the line was relatively short. I was a bit unnerved with I looked about the room and kept catching boys casting glances at me. What the hell? I just changed how my hair looked. Did it really make that big of a difference? Or am I just being more sensitive? I’m constantly being mistaken for a girl.

When I finally stepped up to place my order, the woman at the cash register asked, “Sweetie, how can I help you?” I just took a deep breath and let her “sweetie” comment roll by and placed my order. As she handed me my number, she smiled and said, “Here you go, hon.” There was a boy standing behind me and when he stepped up to the woman to place his order, she said, “How can I help you, sir?” I’m sure it meant nothing.

With the crowd, the heat turned too high, and boys looking at me it soon got to be too much. I felt like the walls were closing in. I know it was just my imagination, but I was glad when I was finally able to grab my order and step back out into the cool air. I hurried back to my dorm.

Walking down the hall to my room, the door to my neighbor’s room opened and the boy I saw earlier along with my neighbor stepped out of his room. They both grinned stupidly as I pressed myself against the wall to give them plenty of room to squeeze pass. After they passed, I heard my neighbor say, “Damn! How did I miss that?” I sighed. I need to ask for a new room or shave my head. Or both.

I set my box of nuggets down and fired up my laptop so I could start studying. I needed to focus, but I was really annoyed by my neighbor referring to me as a “that”. Or I’m probably just being paranoid and he was referring to the zit on his nose.

The next two hours ground by as I trudged through the reading assignments for my two morning classes.

I looked at the clock. It was getting late. I looked at the clothes on my bed and groaned. I still needed to wash them. Not all of it had to be done tonight, but why not get it out of the way? I have to wash a bra, at least one panty and one dress, so I might as well wash them all. Including all my t-shirts and other pair of jeans.

I stuffed everything into my laundry bag, which was now just a bit too full and hefted it up to my shoulder. I had just closed my door and started down the hall when my neighbor decided to return, not only with his friend, but another friend as well. To give me room to go down the hall with my load, they actually stepped aside in the common area. All three grinned at me as I walked past.

After I got past them and headed to the main hall to the elevators, one of them called out, “Excuse me!” I didn’t turn around he again said, “Excuse me!”

I finally turned around, annoyed, to see the boy I didn’t know at all with a silly grin on his face while holding my pink bra in his hand. Grinning, he asked, “Is this yours, miss?” Oh my God! It fell out of my bag.

He wouldn’t bring it to me, so I had to walk closer to him. Mortified, I reached out for it and with an embarrassed smile, I said, “Yes. Thank you.” This is terrible.

As I reached for it, the fucking asshole decided to make a game out of it, by pulling it back out of my reach before I could grab it. All three laughed and then he let me take it. I knew my face was beet red. The boy said, “You’re welcome, miss. Do you need any help?”

They all continued to laugh as I shoved the bra as far into the bag as I could. I said, “Thanks, but I think I’ve got it.”

Grinning, the boy said, “Well, you let us know if you need more help with your undies.” They all laughed again and just stood there watching as I hurried down the hall to the elevators. Well this is just great. Now it’s cemented in their tiny little brains that I’m a girl. And I was going to have to wash my pink bra twice because it was touched by a boy.

I slid my key card in the slot at the laundry room door and dragged my laundry bag inside. At first I thought I was alone, but I saw a girl sitting with her back against a wall and her feet up on a washer as she read her Kindle. She looked up, gave me a brief smile and went back to reading. I sighed as I wished I’d brought something to read.

I got all my clothes loaded into two machines. The washers were old and made a ruckus when they operated. The girl got up to transfer her clothes to a dryer. She looked over at me and grinned. “Sometimes I think I’m the only female in this building.” She had short, shoulder length sandy blonde hair and was wearing shorts and a tank top.

I smiled weakly back at her and said, “I know the feeling.”

As she turned on the dryer, she said, “My name’s Ocean, by the way.”

I gave her a curious look. “O… Ocean?”

She laughed. “Yep. I hated it when I was a kid because everyone made fun of it. But now I think it’s kinda cool.”

I smiled at her. “It’s definitely different. I’m Scotty.”

Grinning, she said, “Nice to meet you, Scotti.” Somehow I just knew she put an I at the end instead of a Y. “So. What are you studying?”

I stepped a little closer to her. Shrugging, I said, “Computer Science.”

Ocean nodded and smiled at me. “Good for you. We need more women in that field.”

I just nodded. About half my classes were girls. I said, “And you?”

“I’m an art major.” She laughed. “I know what you’re thinking. But my focus is on commercial art. I’d like to be an illustrator.”

I nodded. “Cool.” Well, here’s another person who thinks I’m a girl. On top of a job where I have to wear a dress. Dad’s going to be disappointed that college so far isn’t making a man out of me.

To be continued…